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Sea World sits right on top of Mission Bay, which is also home to Belmont Park (Santa Cruz Boardwalk's little brother), The WaveHouse (basically a stand-alone Boogie Bahn with a bar/club), tons of other bars and diners, sport fishing (including charters), plenty of beaches and hiking/biking paths, and hosts festivals, thunder boat races, and Over-the-Line (which is essentially drunk baseball on the beach; a local favorite).

 

Hallo Sea World & Belmont Park! :3

 

Head south, and you're right in the middle of downtown San Diego. There's over 70 micro-brewries in San Diego County, and 15 of them are in the city limits. There's also Old Town, where San Diego got its start (and the Wailey House... spoooky). I tend to frequent the Embarcadero a lot, which is where the Maritime Museum and USS Midway are... I like boats. Seaport Village, Gaslamp Quarter, Horton Plaza, Little Italy, Hillcrest- literally anywhere you go, there's gonna be some sort of micro-brewery, some sort of mall, and some sort of tourist trap. And of course, there's the mandatory shout-out to the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park; yeah, laugh all you want at how "over-glorified" the San Diego Zoo is, but it really is spectacular. Oh, and Comic-Con.

 

The skyline is relatively short, due to the airport right next door.

 

Head north along the 5 and you'll run through the beach communities. There's the Birch Aquarium and beaches in La Jolla, the Del Mar Fairgrounds/Racetrack... with more beaches, in Del Mar, and, my other home park, Legoland (which now triples as an aquarium and water park), in Carlsbad... and more beaches.

 

Credit whores. Credit whores everywhere.

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Muskegon, MI is known to coaster enthusiasts as the home of Michigan's Adventure, a middle of the road amusement park owned and run by Cedar Fair with several roller coasters. Away from the park, most enthusiasts are totally clueless about the region it sits in and instead pass through as quickly as possible. This is ill advised; West Michigan is a major playground for not only residents of the state, but Indiana and Illinois residents as well.

 

Of particular interest to park nerds would be a pair of "rides", losely using that term. Mac Wood's Dune Rides operates 30 minutes north of Michigan's Adventure in the town of Mears.

 

There, you can board trucks converted to dune buggies and rumble down enormous dunes piled up by the winds off Lake Michigan, and even down to the water front. For those willing to spend more money, rentals of dune buggies, ATVs, et al can be found elsewhere in the area, and you can drive up and down the dunes at suicidal speeds.

 

Closer to the park within Muskegon itself is Michigan Winter Sports Complex within Muskegon State Park. While the place is much more exciting in the winter (ice skating trails, cross country skiing, etc), the most obvious draw are the luge courses. The US' only summer luge track is available for public use for a pretty nominal fee. It isn't terribly long, but it is definitely much different than alpine slides. During the winter, you can head down the real ice luge track, again, for a reasonable charge.

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I tell you some atractions near my town because my "home" park is 2h 30min with the car away from me!

So here we have a mountain "park" with an alpine slide, the longest foot-suspension-bridge (1'200ft long), a bouncy castle park and family hiking trails. In the Winter you can go skiing there.

There is also Hoch Ybrig where you can do hiking, mountain biking and also in the Winter you can go skiing. Oh did I say that there is the world's longest Zip line? Anyway it is "just" 7'500ft long!!!

These are the two most popular attractions around here.

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I don't have any home parks so I will also have to go with attractions near where I live. i live in Bergen, Norway, which is a tiny village by international standards, but with 250,000 residents it's the second largest city in Norway. However we get a huge amount of tourists, particularly in the summer and mainly cruise tourists. In 2013 there were 310 cruiseships in Bergen with a total of 453,372 tourists onboard.

 

Most popular attractions in Bergen are the funicular going up on Mount Fløyen (320 meters) with a spectacular view of the city centre, the cable car going up to the top of Mount Ulriken (643 meters), the fish market and of course Bryggen, the old harbour, with building that dates back to the early 18th century and is on the UNESCO's World Heritage List. Bergen also serves as a "gateway to the fjords" and is the starting point for many scenic trips on the Norwegian west coast.

 

http://www.visitbergen.com/en/attractions/Most-popular/

 

Best advise I can give if you ever decide on visiting is bring plenty of cash, Norway is expensive.

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  • 2 years later...

Figured this was the best place to put this. Saw this on the Von Roll Facebook page and thought it was pretty cool! It's a model of old Coney Island in Cincinnati with working coaster models and a working SkyRide, I know this will keep Coasterbill happy! Check it out!

 

 

It's located at EnterTrainment near Cincinnati.

More info here: EnterTrainment

Their Facebook page

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My home park is Six Flags Great America of course. Attractions that I know of are of course Keylime Cove. A fun indoor waterpark resort with a fun little water park,beach side inspired shops, and a big arcade. There is also the Gurnee Mall which is a nice good sized mall to hang out at if you like to shop and such. During my Keylime trip we went to that mall and they also had a reptile house exhibit. Not sure if they still have it or not. They also had other little misc attractions in that mall. Like a tornado wind simulator tube you stand in. A motion simulator ride in middle of the food court. They also have a Rainforest Cafe. Which is a really neat place to eat.

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I live in Vegas, my home park is in Vegas, so...Vegas?

 

Okay, seriously though, if you're planning some time here and want to do something fun that isn't on the Boulevard, the Pinball Hall of Fame is one of the best arcades anywhere. Tons of old school and modern pinball machines and arcade games, it's cheap (and a non-profit!), and is open till midnight on the weekends!

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My vote goes to Boda Borg. It's about a half hour from Canobie in Malden and it''s a combination of physical and mental puzzles. As opposed to an Escape the Room that only lasts 30-60 minutes, Boda Borg is a full-day endeavor and I believe they have 23 or so puzzles. Each puzzle has 2-4 stages so there's plenty to try and beat.

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My home park is Dorney Park, and there is a lot to do in the lehigh valley area.

 

First, there are the Lehigh Valley Ironpigs and Lehigh Valley Phantoms, minor league teams for the Phillies and flyers respectively. The Ironpigs are also ranked as the top thing to do in the lehigh valley. They are also ranked high for all of minor league baseball for their attendance and overall experience at the ballpark. The crayola experience is a fun attraction for little kids.

 

Going a little more north to the Pocono area, you have a ton of Ski Slopes. The one that might stand out the most is Camelback, they have a waterpark and indoor waterpark. You also have Pocono Raceway. Kalahari also has a resort in the Poconos.

 

 

or you can just drive to Hershey or Knoebles.

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I live about halfway between the LA area and the SF Bay Area in the Central Coast region of California. Our nearest theme/amusement parks would be Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk about 150 miles northwest of us, followed by California's Great America 175 miles north of us, and Six Flags Magic Mountain 185 miles southeast of us. If you are doing a trip of California and are hitting both north and south, I recommend taking the U.S. 101 over the ugly I-5 and checking out some of the attractions the Central Coast has to offer.

 

We have Hearst Castle, which is the most visited state park in CA and is the opulent mansion of William Randolph Hearst on a mountain with zebras roaming wild. Ironically growing up here, I haven't been to Hearst Castle since my 6th grade field trip, so I'm due for another visit.

 

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Just about 5 miles north of the entrance to Hearst Castle we have the elephant seals along Hwy 1, which are easily viewed from the parking lot on the side of the road and are worth watching for a bit. They are very active in the months of Dec-April, but some of them will stay year round now.

 

Just north of San Simeon and Hearst Castle is the start of the scenic Big Sur coast which is worth a drive (just not right now due to a mudslide from a recent storm closing part of the highway) along Hwy 1 on the way to Monterey, stopping at several locations along the way such as McWay Falls.

 

 

We are also famous for wineries with over 200 in the Paso Robles region and one of them even does its own ziplining.

https://www.margarita-adventures.com

We are an up and coming area for breweries as well with the ever expanding Firestone Walker Brewery as well as many new startup Breweries such as Barrelhouse and Central Coast Brewing.

 

We also have several of the California Missions here if you want to see a piece of history. The communities of San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay are worth checking out and Avila Beach is a really nice local beach with warmer temps and less wind then all of the other local beaches.

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, if you're planning some time here and want to do something fun that isn't on the Boulevard, the Pinball Hall of Fame is one of the best arcades anywhere. Tons of old school and modern pinball machines and arcade games, it's cheap (and a non-profit!), and is open till midnight on the weekends!

 

That place is awesome! I spent about 2 hours alone just trying to beat the game called ICE COLD BEER!

 

 

and I finally did! I had a crowd cheering me on when I got to the last hole. And by crowd I mean like 3 people and the person working there.

 

Seriously though, that place is worth going out of the way for. And it's cheap as hell. Which doesn't compute in Vegas.

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  • 3 months later...

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Today I did the Whirlpool Jet Boat tour out of Lewiston NY. It's basically a very fast boat ride that takes you through some crazy rapids in the Niagara River / Whirlpool / Devil's Hole and you essentially get crazy soaked (especially the first three rows).

 

While it was a lot of fun, it was also $63 (though I had a $10 off per person discount making it $53). There were only 4 or 5 really intense moments where you have so much water over you that you feel like you're going to drown; it was awesome! ---- BUT... if you just want to feel the power of water, I still say Cave of the Winds is the best experience in all of Niagara Falls / surrounding area and the best value. Also, on the jet boat you do NOT see Niagara Falls.

 

 

Right next door to where you board is a restaurant called the Silo where you can buy the HAYSTACK, which was featured on Travel Channels MAN VS FOOD. @2:40. Mmmm.

 

That's all I got. So while it was fun, I feel there are better ways to spend the money.

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With Waldameer being my home park the biggest attraction in the area is right next to Waldameer and that's Presque Isle and Lake Erie. Waldameer actually has great views of both. If you ever come up to Erie for Ravine Flyer II do yourself a favor and turn left out of the park and drive around Presque Isle, it's a beautiful state park with some great beaches.

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Went to Louisville Mega Cavern today, right by Kentucky Kingdom, to experience their Mega Zips attraction. It was a lot of fun and each of the (5?) ziplines were unique enough as you didn't feel like you were doing the same thing over and over. Pretty neat being entirely underground (literally more than 100 feet below the Louisville Zoo!). The rocks make you feel like you are going pretty fast. The two guides made the experience great and they handle all the technical stuff and braking which you don't always get at other ziplines.

 

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It's a bit pricey but I think it was worth it for a one time thing.

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  • 3 months later...

Two Pennsylvania haunts!

 

1) Pennhurst Asylum -- I'll keep my opinion short. It was very disappointing. Extremely unorganized (from actually getting to the parking lot, the initial lineup signage was incorrect, to finding where to go and in what order, to the queues inside where we had to crawl under ropes, redo ropes for the employees, etc) and those not acting and running the show were extremely unprofessional. Actors all had canned lines and none that we saw appeared to improvise anything. The actual buildings were cool but the whole experience just didn't do anything for me. They did do some light touching at this haunt, but they touched me the wrong way

 

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2) Terror Behind the Walls -- this was the savior for the night! We had an AWESOME time here!!! Parking and ghost bus was the best they could do given the location, and they pulled it off the best they could. Everything was EXTREMELY organized and they did a great job with the crowds. We opted in for the 'tracking devices' (glow necklaces are GOOD here, unlike the #noboobitches at cedar fair) where they will touch you, separate you from your group, etc. Essentially the more extreme version. Actors were clearly improvising with their interactions. I was separated from the other member in my group at three different occasions to take part in 'bonus tasks'... The actors were plentiful and did a great job. The building itself added to the atmosphere greatly. I would definitely go back and would consider doing the hex challenge (think of it as the skeleton key rooms at cedar fair) -- I only heard good things from others about it and we did overlook two of the scenes which looked nifty.

 

Anyway, if you are in the Philly area, check it out. Or even if you are not, take a drive! It was an amazing time! Be prepared to WAIT IN LINES or buy the VIP! Even though the lines were there, they never rushed is our sent us in with huge groups. Take your time and take it all in. Many times it was just the two of us walking through and they handled everything amazingly. A top 5 haunt for sure, and we go to a LOT of them! I know haunts can vary from day to day or minute to minute and a lot of it depends on luck, but even if all the actors stood and did nothing the atmosphere and details and work put into the production were top notch.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

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Ok, so 'nearby' is a stretch, but RAVENS GRIN INN (open year round) 'near' SFGAM in Mount Carroll IL... was the most unique and hilarious 'haunted attraction' I have been to. No, there are not scareactors that come out at you (well... Err... I guess), but instead you are taken though a very elaborate house full of really neat things. That's the best way to describe it. I'll let Yelp, Google reviews, and TripAdvisor do the talking.

 

It all starts just waiting outside the house; and the way your money is taken by the owner, lol. It really set the tone for the whole experience.

 

Here is a good quote:

 

"If you were to mix together Ripley's Believe It or Not, an art exhibit, a haunted house, a parade of homes tour, a one man stand up comedy routine, a night spent around the campfire telling ghost stories, and a history class, you might be somewhere in the ballpark of Raven's Grin Inn. Maybe."

 

It's worth the drive IMO.

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